Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook celebrate their victory in Sunday’s TUDOR Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. Photo by Michael L. Levitt LAT Photo USA
Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook captured an overall win in the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship.
It marked the first win for the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP since last June’s race at New York’s Watkins Glen International, a span of nine races. The finish was the pair’s fourth consecutive podium result in TUDOR Championship competition.
“It was a great race to be a part of, and fighting these guys,” said Westbook. “It was a really interesting sports car race. …. Everyone at the team worked really hard, and it was about time to get better than third and be where we deserved.”
Valiante started the No. 90 Prototype on the inside of the second row in third place. Not content with the option of a conservative strategy, he dove to the inside of the leaders as the Prototype field entered the first corner of the 11-turn, 2.238-mile long circuit. The move stuck, and Valiante took the lead on the very first lap of the race. Between the first 15 laps of the race led by Valiante and the last 29 laps of the race led by co-driver Westbrook, the No. 90 led 44 out of 112 laps in the two hour, 40 minute race on the way to victory.
“It was a challenge, the brakes and tires were cold going into turn 1,” said Valiante. “I got a good start. I got on the inside of Jordan. We made a little unintentional contact slipping down the inside. It was clean for a while, but then we hit heavy, heavy traffic. I got frustrated, I was really boxed in. I got by one PC with a little contact, going into turn 1 was a huge traffic jam. I made contact with a GTLM car, and I think it hit Jordan on the other side. We sort of forced him off the road and gave him a different line. But it was a good race.”
With the win, Valiante and Westbrook have taken over the Prototype championship lead from Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa of the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP. Fittipaldi and Barbosa held on to second place in the standings with 125 points after a fourth-place run and trail Valiante and Westbrook by four points.
The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP driven by Jordan and Ricky Taylor finished second. The brothers led a combined 60 laps and the race came to a close with Ricky Taylor hot on the heels of Westbrook. He finished the race a mere 1.351 seconds behind.
Third place was claimed by Oswaldo Negri Jr. and John Pew, drivers of the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Ligier JS P2/Honda HPD. The team led one lap and set the fastest lap of the race on Lap 84 at 1:19.303.
Cumming and Junqueira Team Up To Win In Prototype Challenge
Chris Cumming started the No. 11 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09 from the Prototype Challenge (PC) pole, and along with co-driver Bruno Junqueira, never looked back.
The duo overcame a drive-through penalty for a crew member over the wall too soon to lead 80 of 112 laps in the Prototype Challenge class and claimed its first win of the year. The win was the second in TUDOR Championship competition for Cumming and the first for Junqueira.
Second place went to 2014 PC champions Colin Braun and Jon Bennett. The pair led 13 laps and maintained their championship lead over the second place PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. Drivers Tom Kimber-Smith and Mike Guasch, who won both of the first two PC races this season at Daytona and Sebring, suffered a mechanical issue in today’s race which forced them to limp their car to finish 16 laps down.
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Finishing third in PC were Performance Tech Motorsports drivers Mike Hedlund and James French. Hedlund and French finished two laps behind the PC winners.
Luhr, Edwards Combine To Give BMW Second Consecutive GTLM Victory
Victory is becoming habit forming for BMW. One event after scoring its first TUDOR United SportsCar Championship triumph in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class at Long Beach, BMW Team RLL was back at it Sunday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
This time, Lucas Luhr and John Edwards teamed to give the No. 24 IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTLM its first TUDOR Championship victory. Long Beach winners Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen placed second in the No. 25 IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4, with Edwards leading Auberlen to the checkered by 22.572 seconds.
It was Luhr’s ninth class victory at the circuit – including three overall triumphs in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón – and 52nd in all-time North American endurance racing, two behind Auberlen and seven behind leader Scott Pruett.
Michael Christensen finished third in the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR started by Patrick Pilet. Pierre Kaffer and Giancarlo Fisichella took fourth in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia, followed by Christensen and Joerg Bergmeister in the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR.
The race was slowed by two cautions that came back-to-back in the opening hour of the two hour, 40-minute session. Luhr started the race in the No. 24 before Edwards took over and managed to work traffic after the second restart to build a commanding lead. With the remainder of the race run under green, he went unchallenged, only briefly relinquishing the lead during the final round of pit stops.
Vindication for Pumpelly, First Victory for Lindsey In GTD
One year ago, Spencer Pumpelly took the white flag at Mazda Raceway in the lead, only to have his Audi run out of fuel on the final lap. Sunday, Pumpelly had more than enough VP Racing Fuel in the tank to go the distance, winning the GT Daytona (GTD) class in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America.
It was the first victory for the team and starting driver Patrick Lindsey, who captured his first career TOTAL Pole Award on Saturday. Pumpelly took the checkered flag 3.677 seconds ahead of Christopher Haase, driving the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Castrol Edge Audi R8 LMS started by Dion von Moltke. Haase’s chances of victory went away in the closing laps after contact with the overall race-winning Prototype of Richard Westbrook.
Ian James and Mario Farnbacher, who won last time out at Sebring, finished third in the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America, followed by Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Robert Graham/Royal Purple Ferrari 458 Italia. Christina Nielsen and James Davison finished fifth in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Royal Purple/Orion Energy/LaSalle Solutions/PassTime USA Aston Martin Vantage. The competitive class saw eight lead changes among six cars.
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